That incident with the Emperor's Daughter
by Mr Makulu
Summary: DOW universe. It's been mentioned by a few characters in the main story but never explorered until now. Find out what really happened on that night oh so long ago.


**Author's note: Hi everyone. I was asked by a few of my readers what the story was about the Emperor's Daughter. Well truth be told, I had never intend to explain in it. It was originally meant to be my version of the noodle incident because hey, every good story needs at least one noodle incident, right? Why am I writing now you ask? Well me and a great artist name E-dantes made a trade. She has made two avatars (one for DA and one for FF) for me and in exchange I'm writing two stories for her and this was one of her requests.**

**So this goes one goes to E-dantes. All of you that wanted to know what had happened with the Emperor's Daughter owe her thanks for making this request.**

**Enjoy :)  
**

Rai lurked in the shadows of the palace. In the light of the full moon his pale green eyes would have shone but he made certain that no part of him was seen by the light. With skill and dexterity he silently moved from shadow to shadow, never staying in one place long enough to be detected by the guards. He pinned himself against a wall to be unseen by some guards that were walking past. When the coast was clear Rai rechecked his map before scaling the wall and running along the roof tops to his destination. When he got there he came to a halt, the lamps in side were still burning.

_Crude, she's still awake. Guess I'll just have to wait it out. Although I could use the time to check out some other sights on this map, like maybe where they keep the concu....whoa down boy! You've got a mission and if you fail because you were sightseeing Wuya's going to kill you...what was my mission again._

Rai focused his mind and remembered what Wuya had told him to do.

* * *

"_So you want me to sneak into the Royal Palace and steal some girl's necklace?" Rai asked, looking at the picture Wuya was holding in disbelief. Though the request was on par with a lot of Wuya's schemes, for his own sanity, he still had to hold on to the increasingly deluded hope that he had simply misheard her._

"_She's not just some girl, she is the first daughter to the emperor," Wuya corrected, "and it's not just some necklace, I believe it is a Virtue."_

"_A what?"_

"_Virtues are the name given to powerful artefacts created by mighty beings of magic on their death bed. By using the last of their magic to fulfil a single purpose the result is something potentially more potent than anything they created in their life."_

"_And the Emperor decided to it would be fun to stick something like that round his daughter's neck and see who would be the first one to try and make off with it?"_

"_Well Emperor doesn't know it's a Virtue." Wuya explained, "He just thinks it's trinket given to him by one of his generals that his daughter took a liking to."_

_Rai couldn't help but ask, "And we know that it's a Virtue because...?"_

"_Well we don't know for sure," Wuya admitted, "I'd say it's a 50-50 chance of being a Virtue."_

_Rai tilted his head in dismay. "So we're gonna risk our necks on a 50-50?"_

"_No, we're gonna risk __**your**__ neck on a 50-50."_

* * *

Rai let out a frustrated huff.

_Wuya out of all the half baked missions you've sent me on this one takes the cake. What's to stop me blowing this whole thing off and leaving for good?_

Rai's medallion started to glow a threatening green. Rai let out a irritable sigh.

_That._

Resigning himself to having no choice in the matter, Rai quietly waited until sometime after the lamps were no longer burning before climbing through a window into the room where the target was sleeping. She looked to be about Rai's age, maybe a little younger. Aside from the fancy settings and the higher standard of hygiene she looked like any other girl. The only thing really set her apart from any other girl in this land was who her daddy was. Just a

"Is it not truly despicable?" A small copy of Rai appeared on Rai's left shoulder, "Why must we be forced steal from such an innocent youth just to further Wuya's schemes? Have you no shame? Have you no dignity? Have you no...urgk!" he promptly collapsed with a arrow sticking out of his neck. Rai turned to his right shoulder to see another small copy, this one holding a bow.

"Thanks," Rai said to it.

The small bowman gave a salute before vanishing, leaving Rai alone to finish what he had started. Quietly Rai searched through every jewellery box in the room; nothing.

_Where did she put it?_

As if to answer her question, the girl let out a small groan in her sleep. Looking at her again, he finally noticed that she was wearing the Virtue around her neck. Rolling his eyes at the obviousness of this, Rai climbed on to the large bed and quietly crawled up to the sleeping girl. All was going well until Rai was right over her, it was at that moment she decided to wake be face to face with Rai. A look of pure terror came across the girls face and before Rai had a chance to say anything she brought her knee straight up. At that Rai quickly rolled off the bed and fell to the floor in pain.

"I don't know who you are but get out of my room now before I call the guards." She threatened.

Fighting the pain as he forced himself to stand, Rai decided that the diplomatic approach would be best.

"Look I'm not going to hurt you, I swear, I'm just here to take your Virtue."

It was shortly after the loud shriek and the girl running out of the room that Rai got the feeling that he hadn't quite worded it right. Not having much choice, Rai gave chase, dodging random objects she was picking up and throwing at him. This went on until Rai finally caught up and tackled her.

"Finally, now that I've caught you perhaps we can..." Rai trailed off when he saw that the two had land in front of the emperor and what appeared to be at least half the royal guard. "...all sit down and discuss this like civilised and self controlled individuals."

* * *

Rai ran for dear life through the palace corridors. He had stayed long enough to hear to full extent of the Emperor's but after hearing the word 'disembowel' used at least twice you get the idea it's time to leave.

Running round the corner and pinning himself against the wall, Rai pulled out his map and tried to find the fastest way out of the palace. That had been his plan until a spear came flew past and pulled the map out of Rai's fingers. "Ok that's just rude." Rai pulled out his Nexus blade and faced the Guards that were charging at him. He blocked a downward slash from a guard with a Dao and twisted to the side to dodge being stabbed with a spear. Rai leg swept the guard with the Dao and then came up to uppercut the first guard with a spear. Rai then charge at the second guard with a spear who was charging him. Rai jumped, twisted in the air, sliced the head off the spear, grabbed it then simultaneously hit the guard in the temple with the butt of his sword and threw the spearhead, causing it to pin the final guard to the wall by his shirt. Rai gave him a quick wink as he ran past.

_Well even without the map I'm sure that I can find some way out of here that won't get me killed._

Rai skidded to a stop when he found himself in the throne room.

_Just a minor setback._

Moments later every exit was blocked by guards.

_Ok not quite so minor_

Right schedule, the Emperor made an appearance.

"Demon! For the attempted violation my Daughter the penalty is death, surrender now and I promise it will be swift."

"Violation?! Come on aren't we going a little overboard here. Why don't we just talk about it and sort this whole mess out. I mean it's not like you've never tackled some random girl in front of their father before." The Guards started to close in. "Ok maybe you haven't but its still just an honest mistake." The Guards continued closing in. "WAIT! Don't I at least have the chance to say some last words?"

The Emperor raised his hand to stop the guards. "Very well, what did you want to say?"

"HEYLIN THUNDER CLAP!!" The was an explosion for wind and dust, knocking some people and momentarily blinding the rest. When their vision clear, Rai had vanished.

"FIND HIM!!" The Emperor bellowed, "A PROMOTION TO THE MAN WHO BRINGS ME HIS HEAD!!

After everyone cleared out of the now messed up throne room , Rai slid down the pillar he had been hiding. "Boy are they mad," Rai commented, "but not as made as they're going to be when they find out I've taken this." he pulled out the necklace he had taken from the girl. "And Wuya thought learning sleight of hand was a waist of time."

Now that Rai had a moment to himself he decided to have a decent look at the Virtue that he had just risked his neck to acquire. Looking at it in detail it was exactly like the picture meaning that there was no doubt in Rai's mind that this had been what Wuya had sent him to find. This put Rai a bit at ease, at least until he noticed the inscription on the back.

_Chong made a pretty necklace_

"DEMONIC DAMNATION TO YOUR WHOLE ACCURSED CLAN!!"

After that outburst he then had to run again because he had _somehow _been discovered. Having reached the outside wall, Rai put in one last burst of speed and when he reached the edge did a wind assisted jump in to the night sky. His attackers could only stare on in awe as Rai morphed his robes resemble a kite and glided down to safety. After landing softly on the ground, he call back to his pursuers.

"BETTER LUCK NEXT TIME!"

Moving on reflex, Rai caught an arrow just before it could connect with his face. Rai paused to stare at the arrow he was now holding before calling out to the temple again.

"DID YOU SEE THAT?! CAUGHT IT IN MIDAIR BABY!! AM I AWESOME OR WHAT?!!" Rai then noticed the night sky was now filled with arrows descending upon him.

"DAMN CRITICS!!!"

* * *

The Emperor watched as Rai ran off into the night. He turned to one of his General. "General Xiau, you told me earlier the Master Dashi and his two apprentices were nearby."

"Yes, they're in a village less than a mile from here."

"Have them brought to the palace. By dawn I want them on the trail of this Demon, with as many of your men as possible helping them." The Emperor stared out at the night sky. "For the sake of my daughter's honour that demon must die"

General Xiau bowed and then walked off to carry out his orders, only pausing for a moment to ponder how history would look back on the events of this night and the events that were to follow.


End file.
